Don’t Worry, No One Clicked on The Sidebar Ads Anyway

I’ll rephrase that.. Not much for SEM-Master Level Dealers and Agencies. Yes, the right sidebar ads are gone (smell ya later) meaning there are far fewer spots for Dealers’ ads to fill. So the question you should be asking yourself is how do I get my ads in the top 4 spots without further breaking the bank?

The answer to this question is simple. Do the things you should have been doing all along.

What Should I have Been Doing All Along?

You know, weird things like ensuring your selected keywords are relevant to your business and the products you sell. Making sure you’re geographically targeting locations where you have a history of success, IE Where You Sell Things. Checking the Quality Score and relevance of the relationships between your Campaign(s), Adgroup(s), Ad(s), and Keyword(s) constantly. Making sure your ads contain keywords that are relevant to both your target customer, your ads, and perhaps most importantly your Landing Page URL. Making sure you build and maintain strong ad rank. Let’s not forget to include this often overlooked but vitally important negative keywords.

So Why Did Google Remove The Sidebar Ads?

“Lack of relevance” is one commonly accepted answer. “Money” is another good one.

If you can reach far back in your memory do you ever remember any sidebar ads as being particularly “relevant”, as in having compelling ad copy and linking you to the item or idea the ad promised? Me neither.

Let’s agree that the ads that typically inhabited the far right “sucked” and as a result Google wasn’t making any money off of them. Now I know there will probably be someone that stands up and brings tons of great stats and data on how their position 4-5 ads were half as expensive as the 3 and provided a great ROI. To this person I would have to agree the cost tended to be low BUT the clicks were even lower. Focusing on “just being there” as a strategy is the digital equivalent of going to the high school dance to hide in the back to stare at the girl you like while others dancing with her. Yes you’re there but she’s unlikely to find you and ask for a dance. You can either be at the party or the life of it – which do you choose?

Is My Cost Per Click Going to Rise?

I was convinced that Cost Per Click would increase drastically but in reality the CPC I’ve seen across the roughly 90 Dealership Adwords accounts I manage stayed around the same. Some went up .01 – .11 cents before decreasing back to just above their normal monthly CPC averages. In some case I even accounts and campaigns saw enormous drops in CPC believe it or not. The example below shows a Nissan store I have been managing since April, 2015

On this particular account you can see that AVG CPC dropped slightly from approximately November of 2015 until around February 2016 before climbing back. That change equates to a $3.11 (November 2015) to $3.03 (March 2016) difference or in other words “pretty much business as usual” a – 2.6 reduction in cost per click over a 5 month stretch.

Facts about this Account:

All CPC increases from start (April 2015 – October 2015) were due to extending Advertising Radius to from 25 – 40 miles.

About the Author

Dan Mondello is a true “Car Guy” – his first word (as a baby) was “Vehicle” and while in college Dan worked part time as a Corvette Restoration apprentice at Ron’s Corvette Restoration in Fitchburg, MA. Dan is a regular contributor here on DealerRefresh where he loves to share his cutting-edge views on the most current automotive digital marketing topics. After a decorated career as the Director of Marketing for a prominent MA Auto group, Dan Mondello left the dealership world to build DealerTeamwork , an Automotive Digital Marketing SAAS technology provider and consultancy.

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Editors

Jeff Kershner

I’m the founder of DealerRefresh. I got my start in the dealer business when I was 18. From there I've worked throughout several departments within fixed to variable ops. Whether it’s managing the desk, perfecting sales process or studying online marketing and media trends, I absolutely love this business and the challenges it brings. On top of keeping up with DealerRefresh, I consult with dealerships and key industry businesses. My passion has been and continues to be helping dealers leverage new media to sell and improve customer service.

Alex Snyder

2019 marks Alex's 30th year in the car business. In that time he has had a front-row seat for the rise of the Internet and has been working to bring the online and offline dealership experience closer. Whether you knew him from his life at Checkered Flag or his years with Dealer.com/DealerTrack/Cox Alex has remained an opinionated DealerRefresh contributor who enjoys nothing more than to poke at the unsaid truths in our industry. He also helped found FRIKINtech.